1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an answering method and system for use in online shopping. In particular, the present invention relates to an answering method and system for online shopping, wherein, in the course of using an online mail-order business, a customer inquires of the center (of the online shopping system) about goods which the customer buys or wishes to buy through online shopping.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a traditional case, where goods are introduced to a customer in a traditional way, that is, through a catalog sent via traditional mail (not electronic mail) and so forth, or through other media, without using an online communication system, If the customer has a question about the introduced goods, the customer may directly call a company or the like which handles the goods and inquire thereof about the goods. In such a case, the customer tells the company the trade names, article identification numbers, and so forth, of the goods. Then, the customer may obtain an answer as to how to use the goods, a payment method when buying the goods, and so forth, from a person in the customer service division in the company.
However, in an online mail-order case, goods information is transmitted to a customer from the center (the sales company) via the online communication system. In response thereto, the customer may make an order for an article and transmit this information to the center via the online communication system. Therefore, in such a case, it is not possible to perform direct conversation between the customer and the center (the sales company). A database has been considered for explaining goods and answering possible customer's questions. However, the contents of the customer's questions may vary for each particular customer. Therefore, the database which can answer various possible questions of the customer needs to have a very large amount of data and thus may be inefficient. Further, when assuming all possible customer's questions about the goods and preparing answers thereto, it is not possible that customers actually ask all the assumed possible questions. Therefore, a database may not be an efficient way to prepare all the answers for all the assumed possible customer's questions.